Panoptika = seeing everything. Because context counts.

Tag Archives: Innovation

Our January theme has been focused on fresh starts, new ideas, and innovation. Some of you have been working on new businesses, new offerings, or just a general re-tooling of what you do, with new circumstances in mind. Those might include:

2. What you’ve learned (a new discovery has made it possible to do something you couldn’t before).

3. A dramatic life shift has given you a push (you’ve finally started that business or business unit you’ve been dreaming of…)

No matter which of these circumstances has occurred, every time you make a shift in your business, you need to rewrite your story. That starts with re-identifying your target audience. Then you need to learn how to tell the story of what you do in words that they understand, that will resonate with them, and that will motivate them to hear more. Even if your customers have known you for a very long time (or perhaps especially if that is the case), whenever something is new, your story should be, too.

Keeping it fresh,

Megann and Steve

(Think we’re just about big business? Not so! Ask us about options to accelerate your business today).

Megann has been re-reading Peter Drucker’s classic, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. It’s interesting to see the predictions (hmm…in the 80’s, innovation and entrepreneurship were the future that would save the economy – sound familiar?) What Drucker stressed was that innovation and entrepreneurship were not just about new technology, but about a revolution in thinking, in doing, and in performing. In short, innovative would be demanded of every organization. Fast-forward to today, and Drucker’s work really does look like a seminal work – with many of the same messages in “new” (dare we say “innovative”) treatises on innovation and entrepreneurship theory. So it seems worthwhile to revisit Drucker’s Seven Opportunities for Innovation. (For more inspiration, check out the Drucker Institute).

We help our clients explore opportunities to find out which are right for them and their organization. Which one resonates with you?

The unexpected (What happened in your business that surprised you in 2014?)

The incongruity (Is there a gap in your market or your business between the “on paper” reality – and the “real” reality?)

Innovation based on process need (Have you found a new way of doing things that makes you say, “Wow, why didn’t we try this sooner?”)

Changes in industry structure or market structure that catch everyone unawares (How could we have been ready for that tsunami?)

Demographics – (Is your traditional buyer outgrowing your product? Or is someone unusual buying it all of a sudden?)

Changes in Perception – (Do you have customers who are suddenly ready to buy, who weren’t before? Or just the opposite?)

New Knowledge – (Has your team had an aha moment that makes them see a whole new way to offer your service or product?)

All of these opportunities are still valid. If you need a hand exploring them in your business, we’re ready.

January. It’s a time of fresh starts, start-ups, innovation and invention. Part of this is driven by the fact that the starters, inventors, and even entrepreneurs (notorious over-workers that they are) have had a little reflection time over the holiday season. Taking a step back because business is slow or customers are hard-to-reach can bring clarity and new ideas. Creative juices are flowing and optimism starts to take hold. But optimism doesn’t have to be blind “Pollyanna-ism”. Instead, it might be simply a better tolerance for risk, based on an awareness of ways that risks might be mitigated.

How can you get a better handle on how to handle risk with your customers, or your invention, or your new project? One, you can chart the risks and assess the potential impact if each one came to fruition. (You might want to also look at the anchors that can hold you back from success, using an adapted version of an Innovation Game (R) like Speed Boat). After figuring out which potential problems are either (a) “hairiest” or (b), most worth addressing, build a systematic plan of what you can do to alleviate or manage those issues. So don’t give up on optimism – just make sure it isn’t blindfolded!

At this time of year, as companies revisit their strategies with an eye to a reboot in the New Year, they frequently reach out to customers and stakeholders, trying to get them to identify with a problem the supplier has. Then they ask them how to solve it. Usually it’s a question like, “What can we do that the other guy isn’t doing, that will differentiate it and this make you buy more from us?”

The answer is to stop getting the customer to solve your problem. Ask them how they’re doing with your product (or the competitor’s). Watch them in action as they access or use your service. Listen to their complaints or challenges, on social media, or through more traditional channels. Then get your thinking caps on.

Full disclosure: the she-partner is not a hockey fan of any kind. In fact, other than knowing the hockey score on her wedding day, and that there is a long-held hockey team rivalry between the he-partner and our number one son, she gives the same level of attention to hockey as that girl in the Tragically Hip song. But today a Canadian icon passed away and it occurs to us that it’s worth giving a nod to Jean Béliveau. Not because he was a hockey player, but because reputation has it that he was a gentleman. It seems in our modern times that showing a soft side to others may be seen as a sign of weakness. Or of not having the “stuff” of business. But when you’re thinking about your customers and trying to figure out what they want, where they’re going, what their pain is all about, or how to solve it for them, a little empathy goes a long way. So in addition to just being polite and kind as Béliveau was reputed to have been, put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Not sure how? Let us know. We can help.

Those of you who have been following our blog and our work know that we have been having a makeover during the past few months. It started with a new visual identity – how our site, our cards, our Twitter, LinkedIn and other contact points look to the outside world. Our partners at 21st Floor Designs gave us a hand with that. And that’s not all. The two of us have a new look, too. Thanks to our friend and former colleague Timothy Richard, you’re seeing different images of the Panoptika partners than before. What surprised us most is how much a new look has re-energized us. We have lots of transformational tools and during the planning process, we turned them on ourselves. We can help you use games, tools and techniques to improve your business, too.

One upcoming (pardon the pun) engagement where we’ll be doing that is the Engage 2014 Innovation and Commercialization conference. We’ll be running an active and interactive workshop to help you understand who your real customer is, and to figure out how they engage (there’s that word again!) with your product or service. Join us and explore new ways to describe your product in a way that customers, colleagues, or investors will understand and appreciate. Learn how to set goals and figure out the road to get there. If you’re an entrepreneur looking for practical skills to take you to the next step, meet us in Halifax and Engage!

Are you a product manager who’s experienced conflict, confusion, or even a lack of confidence that you’re going in the right direction? Do you have the title, but you’re not sure what a product manager does (and everyone at your company wants to badge you with a different job description)? These are not uncommon problems. As we’ve been continuing our “repatriation” to the east coast, we’ve made some discoveries in our growing network. One of these is watching how the confidence of individual players grows, as they build their community or ecosystem. It’s like they are learning their habitat, trying what works, and finding out whose ideas and input they can, and should, trust. We’ve seen tremendous momentum in the east coast startup movement, and if these startups are going to become stayups, we need to continue the community-building at the next level.

Our work has always been about helping people or organizations to get a better understanding of customers, and how those customers interact with their products. This means that product managers are often our clients, and just as frequently, our friends. Depending on the location, the product management community may be very well developed and interconnected, or it may barely exist. But our observation is that once the community begins to take shape, product managers become a lot more confident. They reach a point where:

They’re ready to take a stand for what their definition of product management is

They know where to find other product managers whose learning and solutions are relevant to their context

The solutions they recommend are well-grounded in evidence, from a customer-centric perspective

Their skills at customer discovery, user experience management, and advocacy on behalf of the client are continuously improving.

Atlantic Canada is full of bright young (and young-at-heart) product managers (whether that’s by title, or by function) who want to change the landscape for the products they’re building and the customers they serve. If you’re interested in growing your community and building your product management toolkit, join us at ProductCamp Atlantic October 25th.